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Professional Futsal League

Opinion: Professional Futsal League needs long-term plan for promotion and relegation

by Dennis Justice
January 26, 2015 - Professional Futsal League (PFL)


The recent announcement of a new "Professional Futsal League" has created a lot of buzz on social media. Many people in the national Futsal movement are part of this new venture, which promises major announcements within the next few days.

Unlike our "indoor soccer," with random bounces off hockey walls, Futsal is the only version of indoor soccer recognized by FIFA. There are several countries where kids grow up playing Futsal, played five-a-side, long before they participate in 11-a-side outdoor soccer. With no walls to bounce the ball off of, it de-emphasizes physicality and luck and instead focuses on dribbling, passing, fitness, and teamwork. As such, the game is far less expensive for children to play than the current American pay-to-play soccer system. It would be far better to have youth Futsal leagues than youth soccer in many cities, especially in inner cities where outdoor soccer is not an option.

It is imperative that the new PFL not sell-out the principles that make football the global game. Around the world, soccer is the poor kid's game. In America, it is the rich kid's game. There's a reason it's harder to get African-American kids to play soccer long-term. There's a reason the supposed "number one youth sport" is only #5 among high school boys and #4 among high school girls, this according to information from the National Federation of High School Associations. That reason is soccer politics in America stinks. And it starts from the top with the mentality that the infrastructure is not there yet for a true American soccer pyramid.

Imagine if the United States Soccer Federation, as a condition to get the 1994 World Cup, was forced to promise that in 20 years we'd have a full second-tier for promotion and relegation. We'd be talking starting a third tier by now. Many current large cities are not permitted to join The MLS without huge taxpayer-funded stadiums (that according to pictures from Twitter feeds like @EmptySeatsPics are nowhere close to drawing the large crowds claimed).

Think about it: New Orleans, St. Louis, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Miami, Birmingham, and many other large cities, are not permitted to even try to be in the top tier because our USSF does everything opposite what the rest of the serious soccer world does. The single-entity was created by sports owners who will invariably put their other major sports teams ahead of the MLS. As such, it closes off the natural grassroots growth of the game for all remaining cities. With Australia's federation at least saying the long-term goal of their league is promotion and relegation, the United States is the nation that claims that they are right and everybody else is wrong.

"But promotion and relegation will never work in America." It already does. Greyhound racing is as close to pure promotion and relegation as you'll see. And it's a $1 billion a year industry in America. Golf in a way is promotion and relegation. If you don't meet certain performance standards, you could lose your PGA card and have to requalify through Q-school or the PGA's minor league. It arguably could be put in the NBA and NASCAR. But it's far more likely to happen with a sports league determined at the start to put it in eventually.

"But you cannot have promotion and relegation right now." You don't have to have it right away. But you have to declare the serious intent is to give every city the chance to try to earn a place in the top tier based on results on the pitch and not with who has larger bank accounts. And starting a Futsal team is far less expensive than indoor football or indoor soccer, and potentially with a more determined fan base locally to grow the team.

Here in Asheville, North Carolina (my backyard), our local women's roller derby team has had crowds exceeding 3,500. That is in tiny Asheville. According to a Wages of Win article called "Could Your City Give a Sports Team a Good Home?" that rates a city's capacity for a new sports team based on market size, Asheville was actually rated as marginal for a team in Major League Soccer. Any city that is rated at least marginal for MLS is surely big enough for a team in the Professional Futsal League. There's tons of potential if approached right.

What I think the PFL should do is declare their long-term plan is to have seven separate regional leagues, eventually with two tiers of eight teams each. I know they announced they will play in the fall and winter of 2016, but I'd strongly reconsider eventually moving the regional leagues' seasons to spring and summer. There's simply too much competition in the fall and winter with other established sports for even venue space, especially with hockey. Not to mention football dominates that time.

In the short-term, say each regional league plays dual round-robin (or some other format for 14-20 games) until they have at least 12 teams. When they do, establish a season of reckoning where "x" number of teams will be relegated to that region's second tier. Future expansion teams would have to start in the second tier. This gives incentive for each community to get their act together to start in the top tier. Won't always be pretty, and they will have to adjust from time to time, but it can work.

For the first five years of this plan, each regular season champion will be the official champion of that league. They would play in a Champion's League in the fall and winter later that year, where scheduling dates will be more manageable, to eventually get to a true champion. Whether each league has their own tournament is up to them, but it doesn't factor who goes in the Champion's League.

If you have 12-15 teams, there is one promotion and relegation spot between the two tiers in that region. The bottom team after the regular season in the top tier is relegated. The top two teams in the second tier play one game for the promotion. When you have 16 teams in a region, you bump the promotion/relegation spots to two. The top team after the regular season in the second tier is automatically promoted; the #2 and #3 teams will play one game for the other promotion.

After five years, only regional leagues with two tiers will be permitted to have their champion in the Champion's League. This gives incentive for each league and its teams to recruit solid groups for more teams. Any spots open due to a regional league not having a second-tier will be filled by a #2 team from another league as determined by the PFL Commissioner. By the way, the reason I suggest seven instead of eight regional leagues is I believe the Champion's League winner should automatically qualify for Champion's League the next year.

So once a regional league starts, it gets five years to find twelve cities minimum to create a second-tier. It's very doable. So I don't want to hear "it cannot be done." There are many cities with hockey teams and baseball teams. There's plenty of markets.

Xolos in Tijuana is a perfect example on how grassroots can work. They didn't exist a few years ago but through grassroots work they have been promoted to the top tier in Mexico and won the Mexican league recently. Last year Xolos were two wins away from going to the FIFA Club World Cup. Now fans from San Diego and other southern California cities bus down to Tijuana to watch them play. I am a proud owner of a Xolos jersey and I feel I have part-ownership of the team in spirit. If I lived there I would my children and grandchildren in their academy. This is what needs to happen with Futsal and American soccer! Grassroots support make a Futsal team a great investment.

And there's a reason to invest. AAA-level baseball teams have been valued as much as $20-30 million according to Forbes. The Asheville Tourists A-level baseball team is believed to be worth at least $6 million. I don't know if a PFL team would be worth that, but it certainly can be worth millions if developed correctly in many cities. If the PFL has the right plan, the people involved are the right people. They're not some fly-by-night group we seem to see in minor league football every year.

Of course, you cannot have 112 teams right away, but you can declare that is the long-term goal. Emphasize any local group must get the endorsement of their local sports commission (an incredibly under-utilized resource for startup minor sports leagues). The PFL for their part should join the National Association of Sports Commissions if they haven't already. That networking would be invaluable, helpful for local groups to speak to their local sports commission.

It's all about teamwork. So fans who know about Futsal, know about its obvious superiority to indoor soccer for soccer development, or simply sports fans who think we should have the real voice since we pay for the tickets, cannot stay on the sidelines. We need to get in the ears of local sports commission members, and truly organize. The PFL hopefully has a prospectus to give to local groups emphasizing the basic necessities for each team and how local soccer communities need to unite to support the effort. They should also avoid like the plague owners of major sports teams who would consider the PFL team a toy compared to their "real" teams. Grassroots works!

But if this league says "single-entity" or some other excuse not to say a true soccer pyramid is the ultimate goal, count many soccer fans out, including me. It'd be better to delay a start a few months than be desperate and start with the wrong vision. Establish this proposal as a future reality, and the PFL will oversee many dozens of teams in 20 years. Be seen on national and regional television. Help shape the future of American sports. Don't and it'll be marginalized worse than indoor soccer leagues are now.

Bring this game back to the people.

Dennis Justice has a Master's degree in Sports Management.

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Professional Futsal League Stories from January 26, 2015


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